Route en Bretagne (Road in Brittany)

1882

Milne Ramsey was one of a growing number of American artists who traveled to Paris to further their studies during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ramsey did not confine himself to Paris during the decade that he spent in France, but enjoyed exploring the rural areas surrounding the city as well. He and his family often summered in Pont-Aven, a town in Brittany that was known as a burgeoning artists colony.

Ramseys painting Route en Bretagne reveals his knowledge of the style popularized by the Barbizon School of artists. These French painters had begun visiting the rural Barbizon region to the southeast of Paris in the 1850s; they painted directly from the landscape and emphasized the play of light and shadow in their workqualities that were ultimately essential to the development of Impressionism. Completed around the time of his return to America, Route en Bretagne reflects Ramseys love of the region and his desire to share his knowledge of the latest French style with his audience back home. It was likely included in an exhibition of his European paintings that was held in 1882 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.